Live Service: Experiment - Wednesday, 29 June 2016 at 2000 UTC

I will be delivering my first live service called Experiment on Wednesday, 29 June 2016 at 2000 UTC. To see that in your time zone, please click here .

The service will be held, as always, in the Temple chat room.

I would love for you all to join me!

Bump!

Rebump!

Also, a small change... we will be meeting at 2015 instead of 2000. Someone in the Temple has asked us to wait a few minutes for them to be able to attend

So... I would like you all to try a thing with me.

I would like everyone to click this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-tOXQLFyNE

I'll give everyone a moment to get there...

And if you would, just leave that running in the background during the sermon

At first, just see the scene for what it is.

After a moment, place yourself somewhere in the scene.

Are you standing against the wind on the rock in the middle of the frame, with your parka pulled over your head?

Are you sitting down in a spot out of the wind, just under the tree? You might be hard to see, but a few snowflakes still blow into your eyelashes every so often.

Maybe you're way up on the horizon, high on the mountain, seeing the view for miles despite the weather.

Wherever you are in the scene, be there for just a moment.

Feel the cold in the air around you. Feel the wind, the violence of the storm, and know that everything is what it should be right now.

You were meant to be here right at this moment.

You need nothing else but where you are, right now. The past is gone. Let it blow away from you in the storm.

The future isn't here yet. Let go of your worries and concerns and let them unravel like a loose thread.

Let any stress you feel bleed out through the bottoms of your feet into the snow, vanishing entirely.

You are a creature of this moment, the only one that exists.

As you find yourself in this place, a thought comes to you:

the Tao Te Ching says that the ancient masters were subtle, mysterious, profound, and responsive.

The depth of their knowledge is unfathomable.

It says that because that knowledge is unfathomable, all we can do is describe the master's appearance.

Watchful, like men crossing a winter stream.

Alert, like men aware of danger.

Courteous, like visiting guests.

Yielding, like ice about to melt.

Simple, like uncarved blocks of wood.

Hollow, like caves.

Opaque, like muddy pools.

We are asked, "Who can wait quietly while the mud settles?"

"Who can remain still until the moment of action?"

Observers of the Tao, or what we call the Force, do not seek fulfillment.

Not seeking fulfillment, they are not swayed by desire for change.

Here in this moment we are the master. Watchful and alert, yet simple and yielding.

The wind may blow, the snow may howl around you, a thousand things may be banging down your door for attention, but we are here and now.

Change happens, but we accept what comes to us. We bend into the wind when it pushes us. We have learned to relax at just the right time so as not to wear ourselves out.

We are the harmony that can be found in the midst of the chaos. We are that harmony, and we can radiate it to those around us.

And whenever we feel our ends starting to fray, we can come back here and remember who and what we are - creatures of right here and right now - masters - and just be.

Instead of repeating the Creed as a group, I would like to offer a different interpretation of the text. Please listen as I read it to you:

I am a Jedi.

I am an instrument of peace.

There will always be hatred, I respond with love.

There will always be injury, I respond with forgiveness.

There will always be doubt, I respond with faith.

There will always be despair, I respond with hope.

There will always be darkness, I respond with light.

There will always be sadness, I respond with joy.

Because I am a Jedi I will console more than I ask to be consoled.

Because I am a Jedi I will try to understand more than I expect to be understood.

Because I am a Jedi I will love more than I expect to be loved.

When I give, I receive.

When I forgive, I am forgiven.

When I die, I will have lived a life worth remembering.

I am a Jedi and you are part of me.

Thank you all for your attention. Force be with you as you move through the rest of your day.

Be the harmony in the storm.